Efforts were being made last night to save the right foot of a recently sacked driving instructor - now at the centre of an industrial dispute - after he was knocked down by a car.

Kevin Ma Wai-hung, 51, was training for next month's Hong Kong Marathon when the car mounted a footpath in Sham Tseng and hit him, severing his foot.

He was taken to Princess Margaret Hospital, where surgeons were trying to reattach the foot.

Ma and fellow instructor Ho Tak-ming, 50, have been locked in a dispute with the Hong Kong School of Motoring since they were sacked earlier this month in what they claim was an unfair dismissal because they were trying to set up a union. The pair and another coach, Steven Lin Kwok, held a hunger strike last week.

Ma's wife said she regarded the accident as suspicious and made a report to the police last night urging a thorough investigation.

The sacked instructor was running on Castle Peak Road near Sham Tsz Street shortly before 4pm when he was knocked down.

The car's 20-year-old driver, who was uninjured and passed an alcohol breath test, was arrested for dangerous driving.

He told police he lost control trying to dodge a Mercedes-Benz that was attempting to cut across his lane. The other car drove off.

The crash happened hours after Ma appeared on a Now TV programme yesterday morning to talk about the dispute.

Ho said he talked with Ma two hours before the crash and learned that unionist lawmaker Lee Cheuk-yan had made an appointment with Ma tomorrow, in preparation for taking the school to court for discrimination against unions.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as Sacked instructor loses foot in accident